Va. AG Asks Justices to Stay Anti-Sodomy Ruling

A cameraman records the judge's podium in a courtroom closed due to budget cuts and layoffs, at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on March 16, 2009. Beset by an unprecedented budget crisis, the LA Superior Court, the largest trial court system in the US, laid off 329 employees and announced the closure of 17 courtrooms, with more of both expected in the future. AFP PHOTO/Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s attorney general is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a lower court’s decision striking down the state’s anti-sodomy law while the case is on appeal.

Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the other side for a response by next Monday.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared Virginia’s law against oral and anal sex unconstitutional in March. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli appealed the panel’s 2-1 ruling to the Supreme Court in June.

Virginia’s anti-sodomy law was the basis for a 47-year-old man’s conviction of criminal solicitation for allegedly demanding oral sex from a 17-year-old girl. In the appeal, Cuccinelli claims a 2003 Supreme Court decision striking down a Texas anti-sodomy law applied only to sex acts between consenting adults, not those between an adult and a minor.